Guild Wars 2

Taku.6352:

mercury ranique.2170:

I’m a male. The reason most off my characters are female is that I spent most time looking at the back. And personally I prefer looking at a womans back.

Bottom line is that most female players I know prefer playing female characters. for male players bout 50% prefers playing a female character (and indeed not to impersonate a woman, I seldom do that but cause they prefer the looks). the other 50% prefers a male character.

This means there are more female characters in game then male.

Just because the people around you think that way doesn’t mean the whole community thinks the same.

No but it does seem to be the general rule . Guys tend to play either where as women tend to just play girls with the exception of roleplayers . Personally I’ll roll a D4 if im not sure what want to make

100 % female characters on male player here too.

Don’t try finding strange explanations. Games are a visual art and RPGs let you create an avatar as you like.
I used to draw a lot before and I could draw perfect female characters but my male characters looked poor and bland. I just can’t find me interested enough in male characters to learn to do them properly.

In games it is the same. A good deal of the interest of MMOs, and GW2 among them, is playing dressup with your character. Please, don’t try to deny it. Almost anything you can obtain and that is worth is visuals.
Than I can’ find myself wanting to dress up a male character. I prefer to create a stunning female one.

Simple fact: this is a visual game in which the ultimate goal is to obtain nice outfits for your toon. I can’t find myself interested in dressing up a male toon. Really…

I’m female in real life but my characters could go either way. I tend to start with a few key ideas or a general look or personality and then I make all my choices to fit that.

I get that some people feel weird playing the opposite gender, but for me it’d be stranger to force a character who is clearly male to be female. Especially when none of my characters are supposed to be me anyway.

I am male, but if gender choice is available in a game, I always create female characters.

The main reason is that I will be with this character for many hours and I game with headphones. Headphones make the voice-overs very intimate, and I prefer hearing a female voice in my head than a male voice.

Also in 3rd person games, I will be looking at the backside of a character for a long time. The female form is more aesthetically pleasing to me and they always have more armour and style options.

Adine.2184:

No but it does seem to be the general rule . Guys tend to play either where as women tend to just play girls with the exception of roleplayers .

I’m female and most of my characters are male. I’m not a rper.

It depends on the game and how the characters look in the game, but generally I tend to have about an equal mix of characters:

BeoErgon.9107:

100 % female characters on male player here too.

Don’t try finding strange explanations. Games are a visual art and RPGs let you create an avatar as you like.
I used to draw a lot before and I could draw perfect female characters but my male characters looked poor and bland. I just can’t find me interested enough in male characters to learn to do them properly.

In games it is the same. A good deal of the interest of MMOs, and GW2 among them, is playing dressup with your character. Please, don’t try to deny it. Almost anything you can obtain and that is worth is visuals.
Than I can’ find myself wanting to dress up a male character. I prefer to create a stunning female one.

Simple fact: this is a visual game in which the ultimate goal is to obtain nice outfits for your toon. I can’t find myself interested in dressing up a male toon. Really…

Well said .. very much the same here

Adine.2184:

No but it does seem to be the general rule . Guys tend to play either where as women tend to just play girls with the exception of roleplayers .

I’m female and I’m close to 50/50 on my male/female characters. And I’m not a roleplayer either.

I have at least one male on each race. The only one where I don’t see myself getting another one is on the Norn. I really dislike the hulking forms of the Norn. Why can’t there be a lithe Norn?

Video games are make-believe. I see no reason to refine yourself to the gender you are in reality let alone the species. It’s boring to not explore the possibilities always sticking with what you already know.
I support role-playing and experimentation. So long as the wrong ideas aren’t in place such as the objectification of genders/races then there’s nothing wrong with it.
Also, I’ve seen people say many times how it doesn’t make sense how you could be attracted to pixels; it stimulates your mind the same way a real human body would. It doesn’t have to be real to be attractive the same way you can turn yourself on with a thought.
I would also like to say that female proportions aren’t all that realistic despite what some people have said. We’re just conditioned to these types of appearances because they’re the models most games and television shows go with. Not only that, the male proportions are also unrealistic, and if a woman ever says she’s upset with how women are presented in video games, though I agree to a certain degree, males are equally unrealistic.
The fact is; it’s a game… Don’t let it go to your head and have fun with it. Be a different gender, be the same, be a different species, race, what ever… Why limit yourself when the possibilities are so varied?

Zimlobo.3962:

I play female characters because girls rule and boys drool! But seriously. In my opinion the female form is superior to the male.

^This. I think females get the best armor visuals plus i like playing the mini game Dress Wars 2. Haha.

I almost never make male characters in light armor professions. Can’t stand the dude-in-robes look. Works ok with asura though. Generally though, the female models in this game just look much better, have better animations, and have better armor designs.

Female
sylvari ranger
sylvari mesmer
human warrior
human necro
asura engineer

Male
norn thief
human guardian
asura elementalist

Can’t stand the look of my guardian but I don’t want to reroll a profession that I find boring and is lvl 45. Love the look of all my other characters though. Went with skinniest norn for thief so-as not to look like a giant muscle blob with a tiny head.

My warrior was originally male. I got fed up with not being able to find armour that looked good on him. So i gave him a sex change. I now have 5 human females, 1 female asura, 1 female norn, 1 male sylvari and 1 male charr. Id rather have characters i find attractive. My asura and sylvari are rarely played these days because I just dont like their look enough. Charr and norn are low lvl so they get rarely played anyway.

PSX.9250:

I think females get the best armor visuals plus i like playing the mini game Dress Up Wars 2 . Haha.

Corrected and agreed. It’s all about style and aesthetics. Females characters have more options in this department, so it only makes sense there are more of them.

a t s e.9614:

Because females are sexy and people.rather look at a hot girl than some random dude .

Lol, this is a ridiculous response. Firstly, sexy is subjective – some people find guys sexier than girls. Secondly, even for people that find girls sexier, that is probably not the reason most of them are playing female toons. It has more to do with generalized aesthetics (animations, armor models, etc.) and the idea of playing an actual character.

I am a male and can never bring myself to play a female, it just annoys me. I tend to play melee / tankish type characters, and the dainty females being in the fray wearing chainmail lingerie seems stupid to me.

On the other hand, my wife plays almost exclusive male characters, regardless of the role she plays.

I think it basically comes down to preferences. Females tend to show a lot more skin and their armor tends to be a bit more exotic. Males don’t really offer anything unique. If you are looking for something flashy, chances are a female will look better doing it.

Zerole.7306:

I am a male and can never bring myself to play a female, it just annoys me. I tend to play melee / tankish type characters, and the dainty females being in the fray wearing chainmail lingerie seems stupid to me.

Similarly, I am female and almost never enjoy playing male characters. I know a lot of women do, for various reasons, but most of the time it never even occurs to me to make my toon anything but female.

But I find the idea of a dainty female in lingerie kicking butt with a giant sword to be great fun. In fact I went out of my way to make my Guardian and Warrior the most petite, delicate-looking humans possible. Meanwhile, my Ele is a Charr.

I’m female and about half of my characters are female.

Ultimately, I’d play more male characters if half as much effort was put into making them attractive to women as was put into making the female characters attractive to men. Meh. This is one of those self-fulfilling prophecies really. Kinda like how not many people play charr because their armour options are lacking, and then Anet spend less time on charr armour because not as many people play them.

There is no reason to play a male over a female.
There is no reason to play a female over a male.

Stop categorizing people into groups to make yourself feel good, or make them feel bad. Everyone is different with different tastes, at the end of the day all that matters is for you to say “i like my character”.

Stupid stereotypes:
You dont play a female character? You are a sexist
You play a female character? You are a pervert
You play a male character? You like males
You dont play a human? You have issues
You play an asuran? You are into loli
You play a male asuran? You are into little boys
Your character is not black? You are a racist
Your character is not white? You are also a racist
You used the eye slider in character creation? You are a racist making fun of asians
You did not use the eye slider in character creation? You are a racist towards asians
You play a female charr? Cat girl fetish or zoophilia or both
You play a male charr? You are a serial killer and cannibal
You play a male norn? You have a pro-wrestling fetish
You play a female norn? You have an inferiority complex
You play a sylvari? You are a tree hugger
You do not play a sylvari? You pollute the environment
You play a mesmer? You believe cloning humans should be allowed
You play a necro? You have issues with necrophilia
You do not play a guardian? You are not catholic
You play an engineer? You are definitely not one in real life
You play a ranger? You have no patience with real life pets
You use a greatsword? You are like everyone else
You do not use a greatsword? You are a minority
You own a legendary? You have a credit card or no life
You do not own a legendary? You are a noob
You are not all of the above? You are not god

Psychology was never an exact science or people would be robots.
There are males who play males
There are females who play females
There are males who play females
There are females who play males
There are males who like males
There are females who like females
Then there is you, who thinks your character looks better than everyone else’s
(I know for a fact that everyone here thinks their character looks better than everyone else’s)
And me, who thinks that my character looks better than yours.

I always make female characters when given the option. Part of it is me just projecting my hate for woman who are oppressed. I get a slight sense of satisfaction when I see women heros (or even villains) who prevail over what some might deem a “man only” dilemma.

Granted there is a bit of attraction since I am a hetero male, yet it’s definitely not the main reason.

Turtle Dragon.9241:

There is no reason to play a male over a female.
There is no reason to play a female over a male.
….

I actually think I offered valid reason to play a female over a male in this particular game. The female armors are, in general, more exotic than a lot of the male counterparts.

If I’m going to be playing this game several hours a day, I’d want something nice to look at as my toon. Human females have a nice variety of looks to fit that bill. Simple reason

Xae Isareth.1364:

Personally, I think male Norns look like brainless muscleheads and the battle sounds they make really make …. I’m not even gonna talk about that.

Plus they have stumpy little Dwarf legs.

I almost always play females in games. I was rolled as a male irl so might as well try something different in games. Either that or I’m a closet transvestite

I purposely made 4 male and 4 female characters, with at least one of each gender in each type of armor, so that I could make them stand out from one another.

Going back to the perception that female characters are more popular…it may not actually be the case. http://guildwars2viz.com/ seems to use the game’s API to chart data, since there’s no apparent way to input data. It also may come from the data flow chart ANet posted a long time ago, so take it for what it’s worth.

Look at the center of the circle, and you’ll see the gender proportion is apparently closer to 65% male: 35% female.

Admittedly, this is data for all five races, but it’s possible that the imbalance appearing to tip in the opposite direction may just be that you’re noticing the female characters more.

Although theres a clear discrepancy between female and male armor and character creation options, a good first step would be the ability to disable the ingame character voice overs. I believe this was even an option in beta?

a t s e.9614:

Because females are sexy and people.rather look at a hot girl than some random dude .

The internet is for ____ .

(Originally my post was infracted, since it had the youtube video… and I guess it’s too suggestive, so fill in the blank yourself. HINT: it’s a four letter word.)
(picking on the idea, not you, atse, in particular)

My ele is an asura. When making her, I carefully compared the options between male and female asura, and to me, the males just look dull. Every aspect of them are shades of gray or brown. Females have more color to them, particularly in the eyes.

JustTrogdor.7892:

One thing I have noticed is there seems to be a large number of female characters as opposed to male characters. I should say I’m talking about Human and Norn. I wondered why but then it seems there are a lot more options when creating female characters. They just look cooler. Male human characters look like cardboard cut outs. Ken dolls with bad hair. They are boring. A few minutes in LA or DR will show many more females than males.

I really don’t think people choose female characters to pretend to be female. I just think armors and options for customizing seem more appealing for female characters. Male Human/Norn armor just looks more boring. I wish they would come up with more unique looks for male characters. I’ll admit that 7 out of my 12 characters are human female. They just look more B/A

you mean you haven’t heard the ’i’d rather look at a girl all day than a male’ argument? it’s one of my favorites. i guess if that’s the only time you see a female i understand the argument.

JustTrogdor.7892:

a t s e.9614:

Because females are sexy and people.rather look at a hot girl than some random dude .

Honestly I don’t think that is the case. I don’t drool over my female toons. I just think they look more interesting than male toons. Their hair and armors look better. To me what they equip just seems to flow better than male toons. Male toons no matter what armor look generic and boring. I really think Anet should put a bit more work into the appearance of male toons. Maybe then you would see more.

I actually feel the opposite way. Males have the more interesting armor and females look generic and boring.

When I was young(er) I used to make so much female characters…. and it’s not because they looked “hot” it was just cool to me that I can play as another gender.

But as I grew I up, I realized that female characters weren’t for me. Now I have 6 males and 1 female (although 2 males are mules for inventory space…)

I don’t think I can ever have a main that’s female now. An alt sure but not main. Now I think of my main as an extension to myself, kind of like an alter ego. He has the name I would like in real life, the color eyes etc… to me, it’s so fun building another “me” where I can set his characteristics. I could never imagine myself as female because… well I’m not one

I make females because they pretty , nothing more pretty than a sexy linen wrap set human elementalist and will add a bifrsot in 3-4 months. o.o
Who would want to stare at a ugly full covered on armor male .-.

Sugar.4582:

I make females because they pretty , nothing more pretty than a sexy linen wrap set human elementalist and will add a bifrsot in 3-4 months. o.o
Who would want to stare at a ugly full covered on armor male .-.

1. Someone who likes men
2. Someone who’s male
3. Someone who likes full played armor
4. Someone who plays for reasons other than “ooo shiny”

Male player. My characters in RPGs tend to be 50/50 split between males and females. In GW1, I had 3 males and 2 females. In GW2, it’s 3 females and 2 males. I create my characters according to a roleplaying idea I have of them. While I usually do try to make them attractive, that’s not the primary reason why I make them.

Zaxares.5419:

Male player. My characters in RPGs tend to be 50/50 split between males and females. In GW1, I had 3 males and 2 females. In GW2, it’s 3 females and 2 males. I create my characters according to a roleplaying idea I have of them. While I usually do try to make them attractive, that’s not the primary reason why I make them.

In my eyes, attractive can be many things. In GW1, I had a Nightfall Necromancer, who was ugly as hell, but I found him adorable. For me, attractive in a game is having a character with looks that fits the character. My GW2 incarnation of that necromancer looks way too sweet and is generally too good looking. As soon as ANet implements that look from the necromancer you could make in Nightfall, I’d buy a character look change kit in a flash… (third one on the top on this image: http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/4/4a/Necro_nightfall_face_m.jpg)

All my toons except 2 are male. I dont like wandering around looking like some tart from a brothel thank you very much (yes im female irl).

Covered up, sensible armour all the way. One of the females I do have is charr so my armour selection for her is fine, other is human and I feel embarrassed each time I look at her.

I am male, play all females (9 characters) in GW2. And APB, all 5 are female. Defiance, female. Crimecraft… female.

For me, it is a social issue where I do not like/associate with alpha males. In videogames I find them uncomfortable to play.

Most of my characters are female for a couple reasons.

1: The names I choose are a combination of characters or locations in other games I like (usually Fire Emblem, The Legend of Zelda, or Metroid). The better names are almost always female (taking an example from Fire Emblem, Oscar compared to Titania)

2: Guy’s get totally screwed on hair styles